Sunday, 8 November 2015

Two new recruits

Since Ann and I do not have children ourselves, we regularly have nephews over for a couple of days. Since they know that I have all these cool toys in my wargaming room, they invariably ask for a battle to be set up and play a game.

My approach to this is always very relaxed:
- Let them choose what armies they want to play. Anything goes. If they want to fight Romans vs World War 2 Germans, that would be fine with me. But as can be expected, they always flock to fantasy.
- They can set up the battlefield anyway they want: trees, rivers, hills, scenery items ... whatever they like from my collection. The only thing I tell them they should keep it fair because they will have to roll for table sides.
- I let them set up any type of figures they want, but tell them things like "10 groups of 5 guys each, 1 monster, 1 general, take some archers as well ...". But they can choose any miniatures they want to play with.
- I usually have some quick rules up my sleeve, such as units activate on a 7+, movement is 2 or 3 hexes depending on troop type, you score hits on 5,6; armour saves on 5,6. Something like that. Quick and dirty. Nothing more complicated, because I want the game to be fun and fast.
- During the game, I usually throw in some random monsters, wizards, spell effects, etc. Special abilities and such are easily added.

So, Nov 2 and 3, I had my brother's kids over, and they choose Orcs and Skaven as their armies. A tough battle was fought!

My philosophy is - make them play games they want to play, and make them love the toy soldiers. If they are still interested a few years from now, we might get more serious with some proper history ;-)

About Us

We are a small informal group of miniature wargamers in the 40-50 age bracket, operating in the Puurs-Zemst area (halfway between Brussels and Antwerp). Games are played at member's houses, the host usually providing a scenario and all the forces. We play many periods, frequently using house rules. Our annual highlight is the CRISIS show, at which we often stage a participation game.